ABC Shorts: Refugees…
[Note from Steve: One thing I immediately liked about A. B. Carolan was his wry humor. He sent this very short short from Cork, Ireland. Didn’t say what he was doing there, but I imagine some pubs were included in the visit. He wrote this before President Trump’s meltdown with Secretary Nielsen. Prescient. Have fun!]
Refugees
Copyright 2018, A. B. Carolan
Grigl materialized in an alien vehicle that was flying over an ocean. It didn’t seem to be an efficient way to move lots of passengers because there was a lot of wasted space. A female alien passed right through her/him; she didn’t seem to notice. She/he shimmered and vibrated a bit and continued to move about the flying boat, taking it all in.
It was her/his fifth solo mission. If successful, she/he would earn her/his first merit badge and pass to the next maturity level. She/he would never be able to bear the embarrassment of being held back, so all her/his surveillance sensors were operating at max.
One male alien who was stretched out in an oversized chair had strange fur on the top of his head and looked a bit too bronzed from the starlight falling on the planet. He said, “Get me the DHS secretary. We have to stop this nonsense!”
The sounds meant nothing to Grigl. But she/he understood the thoughts behind the words. Is this the planet’s leader?
Other aliens seemed to fawn over him. He seemed to enjoy it. One handed him some kind of communication device.
“Kirstie, honey, I want them turned away. ASAP.” There was a pause. Then: “Yeah, I know. Mothers and children. So what? I made a campaign promise. Those Mexicans will destroy our country.”
Grigl saw the leader was watching a wall display that showed mostly alien females and young loitering about in some kind of camp. How nice. A picnic. But wait! These aliens are suffering.
She/he probed the alien leader’s mind—it seemed completely disorganized and full of contradictions—and found a better place for the suffering aliens to have a picnic. She/he teleported them all onto a wide, green expanse in front of the leader’s abode. For good measure, she/he then made all the aliens’ primitive weapons around the planet, including those this leader prized so much, vanish into another dimension.
She/he then returned home, feeling good about providing the suffering aliens with a better and bigger picnic place.
Were you successful? the nest asked Grigl.
Yes. I now feel I deserve my first merit badge.
Very well. We concur. You can now pass to the next level. By the way, your choice of destination was a bit dangerous. That planet isn’t a nice place to visit. The intelligent lifeforms there aren’t so intelligent, especially the current leaders. The one you met, in particular. But you did your good deed. That’s all that matters.
***
Want free fiction? The above story is free, of course; you’ll find other A. B. Carolan stories archived in the blog category “ABC Shorts.” I also give my short fiction away now. Besides what you find in the blog category “Steve’s Shorts,” I offer free PDFs containing short stories and novellas. You don’t even have to email the request anymore. Use this URL to see the list and download what you want. (You might want to peruse the same list on the webpage “Free Stuff & Contests” because the list on OneDrive just contains file names, some suggestive of contents, others not. Remember, I write in three genres.) Of course, you can still request via email…and subscribe to my email newsletter while you’re at it. Happy reading!
In libris libertas…
